Alien Shore Chapter Nine
GRID Traveler Trinity: Alien Shores
Author: J Carrell Jones
Table of Content
Chapter 9
Now when we’re out a-sailing and you are far behind. Fine letters will I write to you with the secrets of my mind, the secrets of my mind, my girl, you’re the girl that I adore, and still I live in hope to see the Holy Ground once more.
- Chorus: You’re the girl that I adore, And still I live in hope to see the Holy Ground once more.
- (The Cobh Shanty, possibly about Queenstown (Cork), Swansea Dockland, or NY Harbor)
- (The Cobh Shanty, possibly about Queenstown (Cork), Swansea Dockland, or NY Harbor)
- Chorus: You’re the girl that I adore, And still I live in hope to see the Holy Ground once more.
Chapter 9
Sean sat at the head of an octangular table in one of the bigger conference rooms. His side and the far side were wide enough for one chair. The other sides could share two chairs each. Loggar sat to his left, Dawn to his right. His Command Staff, Herb, Kurp, Milkens and Maria sat alternately with the others. Sean said, “Okay Kathy, the floor is yours.”
Loggar nodded and looked anyone in the eyes. She did this to ease her nerves. She called it the first forty-sec jitters. “I’ll assume Sean has briefed you on what really happened on Necron.” She got nods. “I’ll also assume you know of The Most High Goddess.” She got nods again. She smiled. “Sean has told me that his Command Staff must not be excluded from any information, members or not. If I hadn’t witnessed how this ship operates under extreme conditions I would have objected to a request like that. But after witnessing first hand, I have no objections to telling you any and everything.
For many years, the Most High has had to operate in extreme secrecy. We are a shadow group within GRID Command as well as many other major institutions throughout GRID Space. We are not a group seeking power.
We have that. We actually have about two-thirds of the seats. We are seeking knowledge. Our main drive has always been to find our origins as to what made Wicca. Necron gave us that information. However, we stumbled upon the very thing that gave Wicca its life. Magick. The Necronians never used ‘magic’ in the sense of illusions and parlor tricks; they used actual technology to power their ‘magick’: nanytes and nanobots. Sean, Herb, Kurp, Milkens, Captain Spaarin and myself can do Magick on Necron. And after much research found out, we can do Magick on other planets with Necronian technology. Also, Sean and Robin may be able to do Magick anywhere.”
Sean froze on that statement. “What?”
Loggar nodded. “Adruqu told us that anyone with 63% DNA compatibility could perform Magick outside of Necron proper.”
Sean thought of a dukufa and said, “Ruogka!”
Nothing.
“Okay, so why didn’t that work?”
Kurp spoke up this time. “Adruqu told us that in theory it was possible, what would be the trigger depended on the person.” He shrugged. “One day you’ll be pissed as hell and poof, or maybe even laughing your ass off and then poof, maybe you’ll be grieving and then poof. She either didn’t know or wouldn’t tell us. Maybe more of that manipulation on their part.”
Sean sat for a moment deep in thought, Magick without Necronian strings. “Okay, sorry, continue Kathy.”
“Well,” Loggar began, “We found ten more Necron-like planets and ten thousand three hundred twenty seven worlds influenced by the Necronians. The influence spans about three million years and 0.58 percent could have reached space faring technology – that’s about 60 species with space traveling capabilities. It would have been a matter of time before we ran into them. Up to now we have only explored about a percent of space within the Milky Way. We had planned to do more research, but my computer system on Earth had been compromised. One of the projects we had been working on was migrating Necronian nanobots over to Humans by In Vitro. It seems that our nanobots had to be introduced orally. We suspected that as the nanobots traveled from one oral environment to another they, first, activate, and second, imprinted themselves with the new host DNA. Adruqu could deliver the nanobots. We cannot. Once inside the new host they multiply and split into different types. They grow dormant once passed outside and away from our bodies.
My reports to GRID Command only showed the barest of a hint of success. Someone may know more than they should or figured the Nanobot Project had been more fruitful.”
Collins asked, “More fruitful?”
Loggar nodded. “We can introduce nanobots, orally, into the host using a glucose-based solution. The nanobots only allow the host to produce limited magick, and nothing more. In a sense, we created stupinans.”
The group chuckled.
Quock asked, “What exactly can these stupinans do?”
“I’ll let Maria explain that.” Loggar leaned back in her chair.
Maria Albright cleared her throat. “We learned that the Necronian atmosphere is full of nanytes – the nanobots’ helpers, so to speak. We may be talking a googolplex.”
Someone whistled.
“They all communicate on two distinct channels, we think there is a third, but haven’t been able to verify. One is very low infrasonic, the other is subspace low wave harmonic. In both cases the waves can travel a greater distance using less energy. The disadvantage is that information is limited to only a few bytes of data at a time. One big advantage is that all the nanytes and nanobots communicate continuously. The host thinks and says a command and all the local nans do whatever they do. We’ve identified about a half dozen different types so far. However, we’ve only been able to successfully replicate the simplest of the half dozen, thus the moniker ‘stupinans.’ Now, as to, what the stupinans can do. When a command is given, say, a fireball, the surrounding nans create a potential energy difference. In the case of the fireball, it is a temperature difference. Numerous layers of nans absorbing and transferring the energy difference to the nans producing the differences protect the surrounding tissue. The stupinans are perfect for doing just that. When a threshold has been reached energy is pushed away from the host.” She shrugged. “A fireball is created.”
Sean said out loud. “A perfect military application.”
Loggar nodded.
“You had spies in your midst. GC found the information interesting and sent Robin to retrieve project notes and data. She has to be operating on rogue orders. Otherwise GC would not have sent the Johnson upon your request.”
Loggar said, “My thinking too. Will the Webster be able to follow us?”
Sean nodded, “Yeah. It took some heavy damage, but it is very much a possibility. Robin’s first priority should be to get the engines back online, the weapons then the shields. We didn’t take out sensors so she has an idea as to the direction we traveled in. The best thing to do is decide on a final destination.”
During the whole time Milkens had been writing in his notebook. He and Herb were assigned the task of converting Necron map coordinates to GRID coordinates. They had over ten thousand such coordinates. All were cataloged by the first time the Necronians “touched” the world to the last instant of visitation. Milkens looked over to Herb, who seemed to not notice him. This moment seemed like an opportunity of sorts, but Milkens was struck with an attack of shyness. His heart started beating rapidly and his breathing became shallow. He felt like he might faint. But he took several deep and rapid breathes like Herb showed him and said, “I have several that might be of interest.”
Everyone turned to look at him.
Herb smiled. His buddy was starting to step out of that shell.
Loggar spoke, “Milkens and Herb had been in charge of recording all the locations of Necron-worlds and influenced planets and translating them to GRID coordinates.”
Several seconds timed by.
Herb elbowed Milkens.
Milkens looked at his notes. He wrote out the start of what he was going to say. “Yes, we, Herb and myself, converted thousands on coordinates . . . umm . . . we think we are . . . have been able to get within several thousand kilometers of . . . umm . . . of the actual . . . Necron coordinates . . . that is the system that Necronians used and what we use now. Did that make sense?”
He got encouraging nods.
Milkens heart settled a bit and his breathing slowed down some. He took another deep breath and said, “The Necronians, it seemed to us, divided their planet’s population into ten groups. Each group . . . nine of them . . . left to establish bases on nine other places. I . . .we,” He motioned to Herb, “have the GRID coordinates.”
Sean smiled, “Any special planet we should visit?”
Milkens felt a bit more relaxed shook his head. “None. Adruqu wouldn’t tell us and we hadn’t been able to extract that data from the computers. It’s really kind of a flip of the coin.”
Sean sat back and thought for a second. He looked over to Loggar. “It’s your call. You are basically in charge of this mission. My orders read, ‘To assist and follow your direction’. A wide latitude of interpretation on my part, but it seems logical for you to tell us which way to go.”
Loggar turned to Herb and Milkens. “Well, what would be a good choice?”
Herb leaned forward, “Good question. Four are pretty much like Necron Prime. They sleep and time travel. Two strictly time travel, two are interdimensional travel and one seems to be a backup of the other nine.”
Pulse said, “Backup? I don’t get that?”
“Yeah,” Herb started, “A backup. We aren’t actually sure what that means either. From the data we could gather it seems that this planet is a redundancy of all the other planets. The sleeper chamber seems to be able to house a billion individuals, though the entire population of all of Necrondom seems to be in to the tens of million. That might be a good place to start?”
Sean nodded. “Kathy?”
“Okay, let’s go there.”
“Herb,” Sean said, “Give the coordinates to Mr. Foster.” He gestured toward Foster.
Foster nodded.
Herb handed Foster a hardcopy.
Foster frowned.
Sean asked, “A problem, Mr. Foster?”
“No, sir. The coordinates will take us into unexplored territory.”
Sean answered, “And?”
“And, it is nearly lateral to the Galactic arm from our position. I’ll have to calculate the amount of time it will take to get there, but at a glance it looks like we are talking three days under War jumps or five weeks safe travel.”
“That indeed is something to consider. Okay, work out the details. You have eight hours.”
Foster nodded.
“Okay,” Sean said, “if there is nothing else, I think we should meet again in that time.”
Everyone got up and left the room.
Loggar stayed close to Sean. He whispered in her ear. “Your quarters or mine?”
She giggled and said his.
When the two entered his room they both were surprised to see a table with an assortment of cheese on it. Also, red and white grapes bunched up on a plate waiting to be eaten. A bottle of red wine sat next to it. A note was attached to the bottle. It was from McCoy and Delvin. It read. ‘Thanks, Captain. Enjoy.’ Sean smiled and popped the top off. On a ship like Johnson the price of items generally meant nothing. The bottle was old; no doubt from Cookie, but the gesture was worth something. Sean poured two glasses of Wine. He said, “Glad you are here.”
Loggar answered after sipping the glass of wine. “Glad I am here.”